December 15, 2014 - Give the Gift of Gyroscopes

Give the Gift of Gyroscopes With only two of its six gyroscopes functioning properly, the aging Hubble Space Telescope suspended science operations in November 1999 while it awaited its third scheduled servicing mission. Launched fifteen years ago this week, the STS-103 mission featured twenty-four hours of spacewalks over three days to refurbish the ailing Hubble. In addition to replacing all six of Hubble’s gyroscopes, astronauts on board the shuttle Discovery installed an advanced computer that was twenty times faster and had six times more memory than its predecessor. Other enhancements included a new fine-guidance sensor, new insulation, and a new solid-state data recorder to replace the old reel-to-reel one. Hubble was released back into orbit on Christmas Day.